Cooking diary of Hokkai staff: Get in the spring mood with colorful chirashi sushi!
Products used in this recipe
Introduction
It's the time of the year when the days are getting longer, and we can't wait for spring to arrive. In Japan, there is a custom of eating so-called “chirashi sushi” during the Doll's Festival (March 3rd), known in Japan as "Hinamatsuri". My colleague Boris asked me, “What is Hinamatsuri anyway?” so we decided to look into the origin of Hinamatsuri and how we came to eat chirashi-sushi on Doll's Festival:In the Heian period (794-1185), during the "Joushi no Sekku" (March 3rd of the lunar calendar), which is one of the five moments on the Chinese calendar marking a change of seasons, it became a custom to float paper dolls down the river to exorcise disease and impurity and pray for good health.
This custom was linked to playing with dolls (Hiina Asobi), which was a popular past time among the daughters of aristocrats, and eventually became established as an event where Hina dolls were displayed to pray for the healthy growth of girls. Also in Japan there is a custom of eating sushi for celebrations. Chirashi sushi, which has lots of toppings scattered around, looks gorgeous and is perfect for girls' celebrations! That's why it is now eaten during Hinamatsuri.
The word “chirashi” refers to the scattering of various ingredients on top of sushi rice. There also exist regional variations such as “bara sushi” and “gomoku sushi”, in which various ingredients are mixed into sushi rice. The name and method of the preparation are unique to every region and era.
This time, we will introduce an easy recipe for making chirashi sushi that gives you a spring feel using Hokkai Suisan products. Get a taste of spring early with chirashi sushi sprinkled with colorful ingredients!
Preparation
- Make ”Kinshi Tamago”(thinly sliced thin baked eggs), as follows:
・Mix the eggs in a bowl. You can break up large blobs of egg white with chopsticks.
・Add the 1 tbsp. sugar (15 g), 2 tsp. ricewine (10 ml), approx. 1 g salt (1/5 tsp), and mix.
・Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add a small amount of the vegetable oil, and spread it out with kitchen paper.
・When the frying pan is hot, pour a thin layer of egg mixture into the pan, just enough to cover the entire pan.
・Immediately grab the frying pan and tilt it, so that the egg mixture spreads evenly throughout.
・ When the lower layer solidifies, turn the heat down to low, cover the frying pan, and let it sit for a few minutes until the surface has turned solid.
・Once the surface has turned solid, carefully peel the egg off with chopsticks or a spatula and place it on a cutting board.
・Repeat the same process until all the egg mixture is baked.
・Make a stack out of all the cooked eggs, and then cut them into thin strips that are easy to eat. - Cook the rice.
- Defrost the Ebi, Maguro, Sake Sashimi, Ikura, and Edamame.
- Put the 6 tbsp. vinegar (90 ml), 3 tbsp. sugar (45 g), and 1 tsp. salt (5 g) in a bowl and mix well.
- Devein the Ebi shrimp with a toothpick or similar, and boil for about 2 minutes in about 2% salt water ( = 2 g salt per 1 liter of water). Once boiled, remove from heat and peel off the shell.
- Put the cooked rice in a large (wooden) bowl, and mix with the ingredients from step (4). Mix in air with a rice scoop, and allow to cool a bit.
- Remove the strings from the snow peas, boil water in a small pot, add a little salt, and boil the snow peas for about 1 minute. Drain in a colander and cool under cold water. Once cooled and drained well, cut in half diagonally.
- Cut the tuna and salmon sashimi into 1cm cubes.
- Place the vinegared rice in a sushi bowl or platter, and evenly sprinkle with the egg, tuna, salmon, shrimp, and edamame. Finish with a well-balanced topping of snow peas and salmon roe.
Kinshi tamago looks like brocade thread, so it is considered to bring good luck and is a standard ingredient in chirashi sushi. However, if you find it difficult to make thin tamagoyaki, you can dice regular-thick tamagoyaki. It will look beautiful even if you cut it into shapes and scatter it like other ingredients.
